


hombres y agua

by ficfucker



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Developing Relationship, First Kiss, First Time, Frottage, I mean I guess?, M/M, Non-Human Genitalia, Tentacle Sex, human!link, mermaid!rhett
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-01-23 00:50:52
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18538939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ficfucker/pseuds/ficfucker
Summary: link is newly friends with a mythical creature





	1. Chapter 1

“Does it get cold at night?” Link asks. 

 

“Whut’s that?”

 

“Is the water cold fer you at night? Like do you feel it gettin’ cold?” The sun is starting to set, sinking down behind the last few clouds on the horizon and beginning to fraction on the water. 

 

“I mean… kinda? I know what temperature is obviously, ya  _ goof-off _ , but my heart rate slows and stuff so I avoid hypoxia and freezin’ to death.” Rhett laughs a little. “I thought humans were  _ oh-so-smart _ , didn’t ya learn about divin’ reflex in school?” 

 

Link sits up and peers over the edge of his small boat to give Rhett a sarcastic look of frustration. “Oh,  _ pardon me _ , Mr. Mermaid, I didn’t know to be applyin’ mammal response to a creature everyone assumes don’t even exist.” 

 

Rhett tilts his head up a little to glance at Link, his neck craned upwards from the deadman float he’s been in for a while now, and he grins, showing his teeth, which are small and sharp in his mouth like a ferrets. “I got nipples, don’t I?” he asks, almost laughing. “Skin an’ blubber an’ I can breathe oxygen. Sounds pretty mammalian to me, Link.” 

 

Link scoops his hand into the water and playfully splashes Rhett, who doesn’t stir. “Sorry I didn’t wanna assume yer species or class or-or whutever you’d call it.” 

 

“I’d call myself lucky fer not being on a medical table right now.” 

 

“Yeah?” 

 

“Mhm.” Rhett lets his lower half go slack and slide fully into the water until he’s erect up to where his navel would be if he had one, his strong tail swishing laxily but with force beneath him. “I mean, everytime I talk to ya, I’m taking a big ole risk.” 

 

Link’s brows go together with consideration at what Rhett has just said and his heart sinks a bit at it. It makes sense now that’s he’s taken things out of the comfortable perspective they’ve gained over the last few weeks or so: that mythical beasts and cryptids alike are probably raised with the shared notion (or instinct) to avoid humans. 

 

“Then why do it? I mean, why me of all folks?” Link asks. It feels like a vulnerable thing to question, but it’s already out of his mouth. 

 

Rhett looks up at Link like he’s surprised by the question and his eyes are wide, which makes something nervous and intimate snake through Link because of how different Rhett’s eyes are naturally to a human: larger, deeper, round wells in his eye sockets, and now they’re alert with surprise. 

 

His lips turn up into a smile and Rhett shimmies himself over to the edge of the boat, making Link reel back and land on his ass. Rhett rests his arms folded there, and says, “‘Cause I’m shooo much bigger than you.”

 

( It’s true. Rhett could easily be 7 feet long, from Link’s best guess.) 

 

Link blinks, his turn to be caught off guard. It takes a moment for his mind to catch up. “W-Whut’s  _ that _ supposed to mean?” he asks,  his voice high and tinny. 

 

Rhett wheezes. “Means I could easily swim up to ya an’ drown ya if you ever threatened to-to turn me in.” 

 

“Oh, yer an ass, dude, are you-”

 

“Just snake my arms ‘round ya and pull you under ‘till you’re all blue an’ limp. Easy peasy, man.”

 

“Yer sadistic, Rhett, I can’t  _ believe- _ ”

 

Rhett slaps the side of the boat with one palm and wheezes again, shaking his head wildly with amusement, before sputtering out, “No, no, but-but fer real?” He inhales sharp like he’s trying to catch his breath and also clear the air so Link knows he’s being honest now. “Yer like, the only dude who comes out here alone. Everyone is-is a couple or a whole dang group.” 

 

Link gets quiet and nods, his face growing serious like Rhett’s is. 

 

“Truthfully? I dunno. It’s dumb to talk to landfolk, I guess. I mean, I can  _ feel _ it in me. I’m honest, man! It’s like a flight or fight thing whenever I see people out here.”

 

“Even with me?” 

 

Rhett shrugs. “Sometimes. When you got yer phone out or yer loud or whutever, I get- I feel this jump in my chest telling me I gotta  _ gooo _ .” 

 

Link nods. It makes sense. If something is instilled in you that deeply, you can’t push it down easily. Like rodents naturally fearing felines, though it’s hard for Link to imagine himself as the feline. He sees himself as soft and relatively kind, a mild mannered guy, a little quirky and obnoxious when he feels comfortable with the people around, but not anything close to a predator. 

 

“But I trust ya. I dunno. You seemed… gentler than all the other dudes who come out here.” 

 

“Yeah?”

 

Rhett nods and smiles, his cheeks round when he does. 

 

The sun is almost completely gone now and Rhett is closer to him than he’s ever been before. Prior to this, Rhett had never even touched on Link’s boat, seeming adverse to it, but now he’s leaning half his body over it.  

 

Link has also never stayed out past sunset. 

 

“I…,” Link says, sitting up, “oughta get going. It’s gettin’ dark quick.” 

 

Rhett nods again and pushes himself away from the boat, slinking backwards into the water. What small blades of light are left fall over Rhett’s face; one catches his eyes and they glow reflective green. 

 

Link startles then laughs high, hit with a wave of “Am I seriously friends with a mermaid?”. It was a common feeling the first few days of knowing Rhett, but now, weeks into their friendship, Link is mostly adjusted to it. 

 

Apparently not, however, when he learns new and wild things about Rhett, like him having eyeshine. 

 

“I’ll come out again tomorrow, alright? I think they’re setting up some fair or somethin’ on the boardwalk, maybe I can stop there and bring you some human food.” 

 

“Cupcakes?” Rhett asks, excited. 

 

Link smiles and starts pulling up his anchor. “Sure thing, man, if they got ‘em. Some other treats, too, ‘long as they’re not too expensive.” 

 

Rhett and Link say their goodbyes and Link makes his way back to the shore once Rhett has near soundlessly slipped beneath the waters surface and his silhouette has trailed away until it is unable to be seen at all from the surface. 

  
  


* * *

 

 

 

“Bringing home some sweets to a lucky lady?” 

 

Link looks up from the quarters he’s counting out in his palm and gives the young woman behind the booth a puzzled look. He glances back down at himself, at the crinkly paper and plastic fried dough bag he has tucked under his arm, the two bottles of Mello Yello he has pinched between his fingers by their necks, then looks back at the woman. 

 

“Uh, just a fr-friend, actually. He’s… not able to come out today and I promised to bring back some boardwalk foods,” Link says, feeling his face heat a little. He offers out a fistful of quarters, unsure if he’s even counted them correctly.

 

The woman takes them and cocks her head at a subtle angle, beaming. “That’s so thoughtful of you. He’s lucky to have you as a friend.” 

 

Link smiles back, but it feels weak. He hadn’t planned on anyone asking about Rhett and now that someone has, he feels like he’s somehow told a lie. He’s hasn’t, though. Rhett really is a friend who can’t visit the boardwalk; everything Link has told this stranger is true.

 

To Link, withholding information, like that his friend is a mermaid and not a human, feels like a lie. 

 

For her to assume Link has a “lucky lady” at home also makes him feel like he’s somehow lied to her somehow. 

 

The woman hands him back two dimes then the double-sized bag of popcorn he’s ordered, and he thanks her, glad to be done with the transaction, glad to no longer be holding up the line forming behind him. 

 

Link pulls out his phone and checks the time, head down and directed at the small screen as he wanders through the ever growing crowd. He was lucky enough to get off work in time to arrive before most others of the afternoon did. 

 

He wonders what else Rhett might like. He figures Rhett also wonders what Rhett might like outside of seaweed and raw fish and he smiles to himself. It’s such a unique and wonderful thing to bring someone food they’ve never had before. 

 

Link glances around, pushes his glasses further up his nose, slides his phone into the back pocket of his jeans, and decides on some cotton candy and a paper boat of fried chicken. 

 

Rhett will like that. Link knows he will. 

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Rhett pulls down the small ladder at the stern of the boat and sniffs at the air like a bloodhound, saying, “Man,  _ oh man _ ! Whutever you brought today smells better than  _ anythin’ _ before.” He threads himself through the slats of the ladder and positions himself in an upright sit, or rather, as close to a sit as he can get with a tail and no distinguishable ass or legs to determine proper sitting. 

 

Link grins and brings over the reusable Whole Foods bag he has everything in, sitting in the chair that faces the stern so him and Rhett can eat without being too awkward. “‘m just glad I thought ahead to bring Tupperware. No cooler or ice packs, though, so yer gonna have to wait on havin’ ice cream and whutnot.” Link removes the large bag of popcorn from the top where it was perched and peers into the bag. 

 

“Dude, I know I should be thankful an’ like, we ain’t even that close yet, but you’re going  _ waaay _ too slow for me right now.” The gills on Rhett’s neck and the sides of his torso flare open and closed aggressively like steam vents, his nose still twitching. 

 

“Hold yer horses, man, I’m tryna give you a good Boardwalk Food Experience here.” Link pulls out the fried dough, which has, miraculously, retained a bit of warmth, and breaks a large piece off to hand to Rhett. 

 

Rhett takes it, whips out a frantic thank you, and stuffs the dough into his mouth without hesitation. He groans and his eyes slip shut. “Oh my  _ gahd _ ,” Rhett says around the mouthful. “I think I'm in heaven.” 

 

Link giggles and nibbles on his own piece of fried dough. “Mermaids have a concept of heaven?” he asks, amused. 

 

Rhett swallows and says, “Not really,  just overheard from humans. Books get dropped in the water sometimes an’ some are still-still readable.”

 

“You sayin’ Bibles get tossed out here?” 

 

Rhett reaches for another piece, his palms still slick with water, and Link willingly offers it out. “Sometimes, among other things.  _ Yo hablo  _ _ Español _ _ , tambien. Y Alem _ _ á _ _ n y un poco Francés.”  _ A dusting of powdered sugar has accumulated a fine whiteness over his beard and Link snickers. 

 

“You been waitin’ to bust out your Spanish an’ other languages just show me up this whole time?” Link reaches into the bag again and this time produces the two bottles of Mello Yello, handing one to Rhett and placing the other in the cup holder of his seat. He pulls out the two Tupperware cases of fried chicken and fries. 

 

“Yep,” Rhett answers, smug. “But don’t feel bad, Link, mermaids  _ naturally _ retain knowledge faster than humans-  _ Glory _ , is that  _ chicken _ ?” He looks up from his Mello Yello, which is unopened, and stares at the Tupperware being handed to him.

 

Link giggles and nods. “Humans might be pisspoor at language and learnin’ but we’ve got chicken and I’m kind enough to share with ya.” 

 

Rhett holds up a single drum stick and marvels at it in the evening light, turning it around between his thumb and index finger. “I renounce my faith in the aquatic, Link, bipeds are clearly  _ superior _ ,” Rhett says in a solemn voice, taking a huge tearing bite of the chicken halfway through. 

 

“I should always pack junk food with me, gosh! You sure can eat, Rhett.” 

 

Rhett pulls the bone out of his mouth and it comes away clean. He drops it into the water and it sinks. He moves for the next piece in his Tupperware. “I eat about the same three things every damn day, man: fish, crab, an’ clams, if I’m lucky. I don’t thinkchu  _ understandt _ how good thith tastes to me.” He inserts fries into his mouth like he’s feeding tickets to a machine at an arcade. 

 

Link smiles and for a while, they both eat their chicken and fries in relative quiet, save for the slap of the gentle waves against the side of the boat and the hiss of their drinks being twisted open. The sun is high above them, but not searing hot, rather a nice steady warmth that has been tanning Link’s arms from his frequent outdoor activity. 

 

Link takes this moment to look at Rhett. His torso is tanned deeply and little freckles paint his arms, which are lean but muscular. His fingers are long and spindly, his nails surprisingly human, and there is no webbing to on his hands, though Link has seen him swim and understands why; his puts his arms to his sides and allows his tail to direct and push, making him seem very eel-like in the water. 

 

His beard and hair are both trimmed relatively neat, which, now that Link has given thought to it, begs the question of how he maintains it. Flecks of crusted salt is dried into it, partially sun bleached. Rhett’s eyes are large, a pale green, and when he blinks a second, transparent eyelid flashes over them. 

 

“Can we get into that one now?” Rhett asks, pointing at the bag of popcorn that Link had set aside in the boat.

 

“Oh, sure thing!” Link perks up, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, and starts undoing the white plastic tie on the bag. 

 

“Thank you, by the way,” Rhett says, and he sounds slightly bashful. “Fer bringin’ me things an’ spendin’ time out here an’ all-”

 

“Oh, you ain’t gotta thank me, Rhett.” Link takes Rhett’s empty Tupperware from him and uses it to scoop some popcorn. 

 

“I’m serious, though. It gets… lonesome out here, ya know?” Rhett flicks his tongue over the popcorn Link has just passed to him so it clings and eats it that way, like a lizard. 

 

“No fellow merfolk around?” 

 

Rhett shakes his head. “Naw. Mermaids don’t raise their young past 10 and I ain’t gone lookin’ for a mate.” 

 

“Jeez,  _ 10 _ ? That’s crazy, man.” 

 

Rhett shrugs. “I know enough to keep safe.”

 

“‘Cept for when you wanna hang out with humans?” Link teases. 

 

Rhett sticks out his index finger and pokes playfully at Link’s chest, saying, “ _ One _ human, actually. Don’t be addin’ a plural to that.”

Link’s heart does a somersault and he tosses a handful of popcorn at Rhett, who catches a single piece in his mouth. “Gotta say there ain’t a plural on me seein’ other mermaids so we’re in the same  _ boat _ on that one.” 

 

Rhett smiles, shovels a fistful of popcorn into his mouth, and says, “Keep the jokes to yerself there, funnyman.” 

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


“Gosh,” Rhett says dreamily. “I could get real spoiled real quick on human food.” He hiccups as if punctuation. 

Link looks up from his book and smiles, already on the edge of a giggle. Him and Rhett have been enjoying the quiet and the sun for a bit now, Rhett swimming lazy circles around the boat, reclined as if the task is simple and requires no focus or effort while Link reads. 

 

He's been having a hard time focusing, however, going back and rereading whole paragraphs and still not retaining any of it. He keeps stealing glances at Rhett and letting his mind wander, tearing at little tufts of cotton candy and letting them dissolve on his tongue. 

 

One main thought that keeps derailing him is about bringing some shorts next time and joining Rhett in the water. 

 

“I could get real spoiled comin’ out and enjoyin’ this sun all the time, I tell ya.”

 

“Been meanin’ to ask: what made ya start comin’ out here in the first place?”

 

Link glances to his left, where Rhett is bobbing in the water, and says, “An old college roommate was movin’ uh, movin’ inland an’ didn't wanna take this boat with him so he offered it for real cheap since it  needed a few repairs. An’ mah coworker- Stevie - urged me to spend some time out on the water an’ just relax, says I'm stressed all the time.”

 

“I see.”

 

Link nods and quirks his mouth into a smile. “Seems like everyone in my life is encouragin’ me to get new hobbies and de-stress.”

 

“Makes me glad I'm not human then.”

 

“You could pass fer one,” Link muses and Rhett makes a face. “I mean, you’ve got a good grip on the culture an’ you speak more languages than me. ‘Sides the tail and gills and whutnot, you-”

 

“Link.” 

 

“Hm?” 

 

Rhett ribbons himself through the water, his tail catching the light while he’s under; making it look like flames are chasing his lower half, certain scales shimmering a stronger and brighter red than the others, some seeming to glow orange and yellow. He surfaces next to Link’s boat and pulls his body up on the edge, so they’re face to face, about a foot apart. “Wanna know sumthin’ from mermaid culture?” 

 

Link’s heart leaps and his book slips from his hands. “Sure,” he answers dumbly. 

 

Rhett makes a beckoning motion with one hand, holding himself hanging from the boats rim with his right arm. Link leans in, his expression innocent and curious. 

 

“I’s uh, a way of showin’ trust. Comes from the gesture of sharing foods,” Rhett says, his voice low. Link notices how his mouth twitches up into a hesitant yet genuine smile at the corners. 

 

Link nods. 

 

Rhett pauses a beat then cranes his neck up further and presses a kiss to Link’s lips. Both their mouths are closed and the kiss only lasts a second or two before Rhett is pulling back into the water, sinking down until he’s submerged up to his eyes. 

 

Link knows he’s blushing. He can feel it warming his ears, warming the back of his neck. He stammers, blushes harder, collects himself, and says, “I reckon that’s a thank you?” 

 

“Of sorts.” 

 

Both of them are quiet. A seagull cries somewhere in the near distance. 

 

“Could I thank you myself real quick then, too?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dont forget to leave kudos and comments! 
> 
> next chapter is going to be smutty it seems


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> basically all smut this chapter (with feelings)

  
  
  


Link wishes desperately that Rhett had a phone. 

 

Every friend Link has made since after 2010 has had some kind of phone, whether cellular or a landline, so only being able to talk to Rhett in person is a foreign thing. It makes him feel like he’s in middle school again, having to pass notes with a crush whenever they are lucky enough to have class together. 

 

A feeling Link can also relate to middle school is the excited stirring he’s got in his chest: the infatuated fluttering, the “I’m young and foolish and like you a lot” leap of his heart. It makes him want to sing or paint or cut fresh fruit and bring it to Rhett. 

 

With this comes a teenage libido and lying in bed alone, Link is rocking a decent semi just thinking about Rhett. He palms himself lazily through his sweatpants and huffs. 

 

Prior to today, Link has felt relatively guilty about his attraction to Rhett let alone the few masturbation sessions he's had imagining Rhett. Now that they've kissed and Rhett was the one to initiate things, Link lets Pandora's box open freely. 

 

Who’s to say fantasizing about a mermaid is wrong if the mermaid in question has already expressed an inkling of interest in you? 

 

" _ Lord _ ,” Link hisses, finally reaching his hand into his boxers. 

 

He imagines Rhett touching him: his neck, his chest, the water lapping their bodies in warm, short waves; Rhett’s mouth, dry and salt-sweet, open against his, on his throat. Link cannot picture accurately what their sex would be like (he doesn’t know anything in regards to mermaid reproduction) so in the heat of his lust, it manifests as him rocking his hips against Rhett, frotting the front of his lower stomach, the upper part of his tail. 

 

Link squeezes the base of his shaft, groans, rolls onto his stomach. He presses himself to his bed, rolling his hips into the sheets. For a split second he thinks “ _ this really is like being a teen all over again _ ” but the thought is drowned out by the narrative of Rhett’s voice in his mind. 

 

“Please, Link,” and “Lord, Link, touch me there” and other soft, needy phrases surface, things that would seem out of character of Rhett if Link was thinking rationally. 

 

But Link is not. He’s grinding roughly against his bed, not arching his hips highly but rubbing himself in frantic and short thrusts. He shudders, breathing harderer through his mouth, and continues to imagine Rhett and him in a litter of fevered situations: his beard tickling Link’s skin, the sharpness of his teeth on Link’s shoulder, his tail encircling Link like a snake. 

 

Link cums with a deep sigh and his body goes lax on the bed. Guilt pools inside him, a sudden sharp shame, assumedly rooted in his religious raising, his instinctual feeling that his attraction (to men, and now a nonhuman) is wrong. The feeling always follows whenever Link allows himself to get off while thinking of Rhett, which has only been a handful of times, but he does notice a change. 

 

It is no longer as heavy as it had been. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Link has been sitting, waiting, pretending to read his book about ten minutes. Once again, reading eludes him, an impossible thing when his mind is so easily brought to a wander; a fraction nervous about swimming, the remainder restlessly excite to see Rhett again.

 

He hears a splash and looks over the boat's edge to his left. Rhett peers up at him, slunk down into the water with his eyes barely above the rim of the surface.

 

“Hiya, Rhett!” Link says, setting his book aside and standing. 

 

Rhett rises up and grins, his gills yawning against the air. “Lookin’ like yer ready to take a dip today.” 

 

Link looks down at his swim shorts and beams back at Rhett. “Figured shouldn’t let you have all th' fun all th’ time.”

 

Rhett slithers over to the boat and extends a closed, dripping hand. He deposits a fistful of cowrie shells into Link’s palm and Link rolls them around with his thumb, giggling. “Gotchu these,” Rhett says, voice quiet. 

 

Link is about to thank him, his lips parted, his eyes still dropped to the clutch of small, speckled shells, and he imagines the moment will be soft and tender, when Rhett says, “Hurry up then! I been dyin’ to have a swimming buddy, Link.”

 

Link scoff-laughs and puts the shells into a cup holder for safe keeping, muttering, “Kep yer britches on, I’m comin’,” and starts to peel off his shirt. He can sense Rhett’s eyes on him as he does and he tries not feel ashamed or bashful, he’s not a highly self conscious person and Rhett doesn’t wear anything at all, but there is an air of intimacy to it. He decides to keep his glasses on. 

 

“You swim a lot?” Rhett asks. He’s doing small laps back and forth, like a dog excited to be walked. 

 

Link steps over the boat’s edge and lowers himself down the ladder, saying, “Not often, really. And back home I mostly swam in lakes, not the ocean.” Link sits on one of the rungs and swings his legs in the water.

 

“Back home?” 

 

“Oh, I guess I never told ya?” Link laughs. “I’m not native to California. I grew up in North Carolina.” Another thing Link has not told Rhett is he’s scared of drowning. 

 

He’s been able to combat it well with some slightly obsessive organization and preparation, like keeping his phone on him, carrying a portable charger, having flares and life vests and a radio on board, and in some moment of absolute infatuation of Rhett, he assumed he could overcome the apprehension; dive head first into the water and enjoy the moment as is, but being here now, Link is frozen in place. 

 

“I think the furthest I’ve ever swum is - I thought you said you were swimmin’, man.” 

 

“Whatchu think I’m doin’?” 

 

Rhett snakes through the water and floats a few inches from where Link is seated. “You ain’t swimmin’.” 

 

Link exhales through his nose and rolls his eyes. “Okay, so, don’t be a jerk ‘bout it, but I-I-I get nervous about- I’m scared of drowning.” 

 

After a moment of looking at Link wildly, his eyes wide, Rhett flops his head back and lets out a hard laugh. “Li-Link, how couldchu  _ even _ drown out here? I mean, no offense, but have you seen how  _ big _ I am compared to you? I’ll grab ya if you start sinkin’.” 

 

Link slices his eyes down to slits and purses his lips, blowing a raspberry. “That ain’t how bein’ scared works, man. I ain’t magically _cured_ now.” 

 

Rhett rolls his eyes and circles his fingers around Link’s ankles, pulling playfully. “C’mon, I could getchu back to shore in under a minute, I bet, if we really needed to.” 

 

“Wait, wait, wait…!” Link squeaks out. He squirms a bit, wiggling his legs, and he turns his torso to the side so his chest is facing back towards the boat. “Wait, Rhett! I- oh,  _ gawsh _ , okay, jus’... put yer arms out straight then.” 

 

Rhett complies, though the look on his face is half amused and half puzzled. 

 

“I know howta swim, by th’ way, I jus’ don’t like bein’ out here like this, ya know? Feels like jumpin’ outta an air plane or sumthin’,” Link says, lowering himself further down the ladder. He reaches out and touches hesitantly on Rhett’s shoulders, pressing his palm there several times before he grips fully. 

 

“I gotchu, Link.” 

 

A flustered giggle escapes Link before he can swallow it down. He’s up to his navel in the water and Rhett is circling his arms around him. “This is alrigh-”

 

Rhett closes his arms tight and pushes the two of them back, away from the boat, hoisting Link up so he’s almost over his shoulder, then leans himself back. He moves Link like he’s weightless, setting him so he’s straddling the part of him where his tail meets his stomach, and Link quivers, clinging to Rhett. 

 

Rhett is giggling, his head back in the water. “Gawsh, yer jumpy, huh? Jus’ a little water, Link.” One of his hands comes up to the middle of Link’s back and pats his bare skin. 

 

“I hatechu.” Link would probably have buried his face into the crook of Rhett’s neck if he wasn’t dead-man floating in the water, so instead his forehead is pressed to the flat plane of Rhett’s chest, between his nipples. 

 

Rhett laughs harder and gives Link’s side a little pinch. “Water’s nice, though, right? Better than bein’ on yer boat, I bet.” 

 

“Water’s nice,” Link agrees, his voice low. He sits up slowly, pressing the flats of his palms to Rhett’s stomach and looking around. One of Rhett’s hands is still placed on Link’s hip while the other floats lazily in the water like seaweed swaying. Half of his hair is wet, unfurling and bracketing his head with darker-than-usual curls, and he’s smiling at Link, his gills flapping. 

 

The entire situation is so close and bizarre. The sun is warming both their bodies, soothed by the water that laps over them, and they are touching each other in ways they haven’t before: skin to skin, hands placed where hands have not yet been placed until now. Link’s heart hiccups and he traces a fingernail around a deep red scale. 

 

“Link?” 

 

“Mm?” 

 

“Could I thank you again? Ya know, fer bein’ brave an’ everythin’?” 

 

Link quirks his head, smiles, goes red in the face. “That a mermaid thing? Thinking kisses always mean ‘thank you’?” Link teases. He leans down and Rhett cranes his neck up, kissing slow and soft with closed mouths. 

 

Rhett must feel the little jerk Link gives (nervous being in the water like that, perched, with his eyes closed) because he pulls away a bit and says, “I’m not gonna let ya fall,” against his lips. 

 

Link presses his smile into Rhett, their mouths open now, though Link is hesitant to push his tongue any further at how sharp Rhett’s teeth seem. Rhett is making little “mm” sounds, his long fingers kneading into Link’s hips, and Link can feel himself getting hard in his swim shorts. 

 

Link is starting to roll his hips in hesitant and subtle thrusts, carefully dragging himself over Rhett’s tail, when he notices something new. He breaks their kiss and looks down between his legs. 

 

“Oh,” he says dumbly, “hello there.” 

 

Rhett giggles and Link glances up to see his face flushing a deep blue. “Sorry ‘bout dat.” 

 

Link shakes his head. “No, i’s- you’re fine, Rhett. I mean, I was straight out humpin’ you.” 

 

Flanked between Link’s thighs, some inches below Rhett’s navel is a bulging beneath the scales there, like an egg underneath a fitted sheet on a mattress. Link figures this is the start to Rhett’s arousal and the alienness to it and the fact that he is the direct cause of this, makes his head feel dizzy in a good way. 

 

“How should I-?” Link places a palm to the swell and Rhett groans sharply, getting Link to pull his hand away like he’s been burned, eyes wide in alarm.    
  


“No, no, Link, it didn't’ hurt-”

 

“Gosh, Rhett…!” Link almost slips off balance from the surprise and Rhett steadies him by the hips. 

 

Rhett exhales hard through his nose. “Here, like-like this.” Rhett brings both his hands to Link’s arms, takes him by the wrists, places his palms flat so Link’s thumbs are crossed over the other in an X. 

 

Link nods, his brow furrowing with concentration, determination, like he’s helping aid a science experiment. He shifts a bit, settling his thighs so they squeeze onto Rhett’s long, slippery body, and he notices the muscles there, the hip bones, the way his tail is made up of what feels like two strong legs intertwined. That makes his cock, now fully hard, weep precum. 

 

“Jus’ rub on ya?” Link does once, investigational, and Rhett’s head lolls back in the water, his gills puffing up and out, a strangled sound coming from inside his throat. “I’m takin’ that as a yes.” 

 

“Bet yer ass a yes, golly, Link.” 

 

Link smirks, his tongue peeking out from his lips, and he continues this, pressing the heel of his palm to the bulge. Something sticky and viscous is starting to web his fingers and Link squints down at Rhett’s “crotch”. A slit is starting to open, like a flower bud, or a human labia. 

 

Rhett is panting hard, his hands back on Link’s hips, and he gasps when Link gently dips his index into the opening. A phallus emerges, ink-black and tentacle in nature, so reflective with slick and its own darkness, Link nearly feels blinded. 

 

“Glory, Rhett…!” Link exclaims, equal parts startled and excited as it slithers out, snakelike, twisting around Link’s wrist. 

 

Rhett kind of laughs and his hand fumbles to the front of Link’s shorts. He pauses like he’s considering asking permission, but instead asks, “Too weird for a human?”

 

“Weird for me? Little bit, but I seen weirder online.” Link marvels at the cock that has emerged before him and with the same sense you might play with silly putty, he begins to caress it, letting it slip and slide through his fingers indiscriminately. 

 

A trilling moan bubbles from Rhett and he clamps his free hand over his mouth, the other feverishly rubbing at Link’s groin. His face is nearly fully blue now, making him look like he’s drowning and everything is so new and otherworldly to Link, his cock throbs in confusion. 

 

He’s a cocktail of anxiety and arousal, and if Rhett doesn’t touch him for real soon, he thinks he’s going to pass out. 

 

“Ya can touch me, Rhutt, salright to,” he says in a whisper. 

 

Rhett nods, his eyes shut, and dips his hand into Link’s swim trunks, pushing them down as much he can so Link’s cock bobs free between his legs. Link shuffles forward, hunched over, his hand still on Rhett. 

 

“Oh God, Link,” Rhett pants. 

 

Link presses his cock, small and pink in comparison, between the singular coil of Rhett’s and they both gasp. Rhett’s cock squeezes and squirms as if by its own volition and Link slaps a hand to Rhett’s chest, breathing hard, the lines of his neck showing taut. 

 

“I’m real glad we found each other, Rhett,” Link chokes out. He shudders and ruts himself against Rhett, his cock completely slimed by whatever fluid it is Rhett is leaking in thick ropes. 

 

“‘m glad, too, Link.” 

 

Link frot, gentle but quick while Rhett holds him in place, his thumbs rubbing over the bones of his hips. He bows over and kisses at Rhett’s chest, his neck, too short in the position they’re in to reach Rhett’s mouth, but in the moment, it seems alright, because Rhett is breathing in whatever human smell he can smell from Link’s hair. 

 

He bites careful at Rhett’s collarbones, more a nip than anything, too nervous about touching on Rhett’s gills to try anything further up, and he can feel Rhett quivering under him. Rhett’s cock is coiled tight around him, better than anything he’s ever felt, stroking him with such sharp precision it makes his vision blurry. The autonomy is that of a robot, above human, an involuntary muscle movement, touching Link mindless the same way a heart pumps blood. 

 

The entity of Link’s thighs are wet, too, slick with Rhett arousal. Link can feel little strings of it clinging to him, even with the water sloshing over the both of them, a thick, heavy fluid that smells like musk, though much sweeter. Their movements are making obscene, saturated noises. 

 

“Gawd, Rhett,” Link murmurs. 

 

Rhett is breathing even harder now, the gills on his torso flaring open in great gusts, wide enough that the pink, frilly filaments can easily be seen. “Feel so good, Link, could cry, you feel so good.” His nose keeps bumping against Link, inhaling and panting into his hair. 

 

Link’s balls feel heavy and his thighs shiver down to the flesh. “Rh-Rhett, ‘m gettin’ close,” he warns, his voice strained and high. 

 

“I ‘m, too,” Rhett says low. His cock tightens harsh on Link and moves like a firing piston or a crankshaft or whatever else that Link cannot properly identify because it has him seeing stars.

 

Link’s thrusts get sloppy and erratic right before he cums, his calves, where they’re buckled beneath Rhett’s tail tightening, cumming hard on Rhett’s stomach, and while Link is still shivering and calling his name, Rhett cums, too, his body going rigid (save for the end of his tail). A flood of warmth pools between them, Rhett’s cum white like Link’s, though much thicker and in greater quantity. 

 

Link pants out a shuddering breath. “Lord,” he whispers. 

 

“I think that was the best thank you I ever got,” Rhett says quietly. His chest is still heaving. 

 

“I think I’m done being scared of water.” Link inches up and nudges Rhett’s chin. Rhett gets the message and kisses him, a long, soft kiss with Rhett running his hands all up and down Link’s back like he can’t get over the fact that this man is real. 

 

“Think I’m done bein’ scared of humans then.” 

 

Link giggles, sitting up, still straddling Rhett and tries to adjust his shorts so he’s modestly covered again. “Rhett? I think I jus’ might love you.” 

 

Rhett’s face breaks into sunshine and he smiles hard, his eyes crinkling shut. “I hope so, man, because I know fer sure I love you.” 

 

Link returns the smile, his heart warm and sappy, and he rakes his fingers through Rhett’s sopping hair. 

 

There is absolutely no shame this time; not under the sun with Rhett, not touching in intimate ways, not sitting in the water with such contentment it could be likened to the Garden of Eden. There is no guilt between them. Link knows, in completion, there will never be a reason to feel guilty with Rhett.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's mermay you guys and i had a lot of fun writing this
> 
> kudos, comments, other fic suggestions: all are appreciated
> 
> talk to me on tumblr @ficfucker


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